Murray with big lead, likely next Seattle mayor

State Sen. Ed Murray took a big lead Tuesday night of 56 percent to 43 percent over incumbent Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn, a margin that makes the 18-year veteran of the Washington Legislature a nearly sure bet to become Seattle’s next mayor.

McGinn acknowledged to supporters that he is “pretty far behind,” but his fervent crowd talked Hizzoner out of conceding right now. “OK, not yet, we’ll count a few more votes,” he said. McGinn had acknowledged he is likely to be making a concession call to Murray.

Murray, 58, who is gay, is a longtime champion of gay and lesbian rights in the Legislature, but has also crafted transportation legislation and chaired budget writing committees. Once considered likely to run for Congress, he has campaigned for mayor since late last year.

The apparent defeat of McGinn marks the third time in 12 years that Seattle voters have tossed out an incumbent mayor. Paul Schell in 2001 and Greg Nickels in 2009 failed to make it out of the primary.

Other causes on the political left were performing much better than McGinn. Seattle City Councilman Mike O’Brien, McGinn’s chief City Hall ally, was cruising with 64 percent of the vote. Socialist Kshama Sawant was trailing longtime Seattle City Councilman Richard Conlin by a surprisingly close 46-53 percent margin.

A $15-an-hour minimum wage proposal in the city of SeaTac was running narrowly ahead with about 54 percent of the vote.

The apparent win by Murray was a vote for what’s long been known as as the “Seattle way.” It’s the longstanding Seattle tradition of avoiding confrontation in favor of a collegial, everybody-gets-consulted-about-everything style of politics.

McGinn, a former Sierra Club chapter leader, was known to lead with his chin, or as he liked to put it: “I believe in putting the hard issues out there and having debate.”

The mayor sought to deny use of a city alleyway to a Whole Foods development in West Seattle, arguing that it would serve to depress wages to workers in the neighborhood. He offended then-Gov. Chris Gregoire by saying she could not be trusted to protect the city’s interests on the deep-bore tunnel project. He tried to exclude Seattle City Attorney Pete Holmes from police reform negotiations with the U.S. Justice Department.

Murray was the big beneficiary of alienation with the incumbent. The challenger found himself heading a coalition of sometime adversaries, which came to range from the Seattle Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce to Planned Parenthood, to the Seattle Police Officers Guild, to Washington Conservation Voters. Getting her revenge, Gregoire headlined a Women for Murray fund-raiser.

The general election campaign witnessed regular scenes of ex-rivals from the mayor’s race — council members Tim Burgess and Bruce Harrell, ex-Councilman Peter Steinbrueck — lined up beside or behind Murray. The Murray message was never specific, but it never changed: “We are better off together than playing the politics of division.”

One issue resonated with the public — downtown crime. “If we can’t face it, we can’t fix it: Seattle has a public safety problem,” Murray said. He offered few specifics, aside from promising a nationwide search to find a blue-chip police chief.

Murray seemed to promise that he’d do a lot of what McGinn was doing — only with more collegiality and at a slower pace.

At times, Murray’s stump speech verged on “Kumbaya,” such as his declaration, “Building togetherness is the only way how to do politics.”

The result was a sometimes nasty campaign between two guys who agreed with each other much of the time.

McGinn has trooped to the Seattle waterfront a dozen or more times in the past year to warn of massive congestion from coal trains should the giant Gateway Pacific export terminal be built north of Bellingham. In October, there was Murray at Pier 70, with a train going by, saying h,. too, opposed the coal port but could do it more effectively.

McGinn, the incumbent, assumed the role of insurgent. “I don’t think the Chamber of Commerce is spending thousands of dollars for him to be more effectively progressive,” McGinn told one pre-election meeting.

Murray, under constant fire, complained: “One day I’m a racist, the next day a misogynist, the next day I am against bike paths.”

A Democratic activist (and Murray backer), Yusuf Cabali, wrote Tuesday on his Facebook page: “This is the most divisive election I have ever seen in Seattle. And it worries me that some ideologically like-minded people who are now on the opposite side of issues/candidates may not be in a full trusting mode ever again.”

What manner of mayor would Murray be?

“I think Ed is fundamentally a regional politician,” said state Rep. Reuven Carlyle, D-Seattle, who backed Murray for his potential at building coalitions and approaching Olympia from a position of strength.

Murray was low key until until angry news conferences at the very end. He can be passionate; witness his participation (with now-husband Michael Shiosaki) in a big pre-election Catholics for Marriage Equality demonstration outside St. James Cathedral last year.

He keeps his eyes on the prize and pursues it patiently. Gay rights nabobs from the East Coast mocked Murray’s incremental, step-by-step approach in the Legislature. What did it yield? A non-discrimination bill, anti-bullying legislation, followed by civil unions and finally marriage equality.

Washington became the first state in America to vote for civil unions between same-sex couples, and last year one of the first three states to approve same-sex marriage by public vote.

In the wake of a bruising gubernatorial election, eventually decided by a Chelan County judge — Gregoire won by 133 votes — Murray as House Transportation Committee chairman helped shepherd a gas tax increase and package of transportation improvements through the Legislature.

Right-wing radio talk show hosts collected 450,000 signatures and forced a November vote. Polls showed the transportation package headed for defeat.

It passed, with a coalition that included business, labor and greens. During a fall debate, Murray teamed up with cellular phone billionaire John Stanton — a Republican and conservative — to defend the tax in a debate with conservative broadcaster John Carlson.

Ed Murray showed in Olympia that a gay guy from Seattle could be a tough inside player, and a builder of statewide coalitions.

Murray is not into what George H.W. Bush once called “the vision thing.” But the guy knows where he’s going, does not trip up, puts one foot in front of the other and finds a new path when one is blocked.

Unable to marry Shiosaki in his own Catholic Church, Murray and his partner marched to the altar at the Episcopal St. Mark’s Cathedral on Capitol Hill. The congregation in the church included present and former state senators from both parties who had voted for marriage equality in the Legislature.